Friday, January 2, 2009

Ah . . . Space

I love having Christmas decorations up, but I'm always so happy to have them come down as well. I think it's the best way to kick off the new year, reclaiming our space.

Every time I walk in the living room I feel like it's so big because the tree is gone and all it's trappings.

So, in getting all the stuff put away, I wanted to share with you something that Peanut Head and I have been doing since the girls were babies.

I think like many families, Peanut Head grew up with the tradition of receiving a new ornament each year at Christmas, so that when he grew up and moved out he would have a set of ornaments to take with him.

This was a tradition that we knew we wanted to carry on for our kids. Except that because I carry everything just a little bit too far, Zoe ended up with at least a dozen ornaments her first year. Oops.

It became apparent early on that we needed a system to keep track of the kids' ornaments, so we went out and bought a storage container for each of the girls' ornaments.

And you know, I love me an excuse to buy a new container.

The other thing we came up with was this little spreadsheet (love those too, I'm the Queen), to keep track of each ornament, the year it was received, and who the giver was.

These little lists stay in the girls' boxes with their ornaments, and they save us a lot of time when putting the ornaments away. Without them, I don't think we'd remember whose ornament was whose and where they came from.

These are the boxes, all packed up and ready to put away for next year.

12 comments:

Each of my dds has their collection, too...but I am in awe of your organization... I just intialed the back of each with their middle intial ...all their first names start with "L" and then I put the date! Someday I will sort... I should do it soon seeing two of them are in their 20's lol

Okay, you're killin' me! Just when I was impressed with my own 'putting away/organizing' skills (mostly because I got it all put away already!), I see this!! HA HA.....next year I will get a box for each child's ornaments. What a great idea!! And yes, I love the feeling of our front room...it feels big and refreshing!! Weird?!

What another great idea! The spreadsheet with who gave them the ornament and what year is just fabulous. I am going to have to do that for Lexi! It does feel clean and uncluttered with all the Christmas decorations down.

Very cool idea Miss Organization! I am going to steal yet another one of your ideas. I have gotten the boys ornaments the last 2 years and was wondering what to do with them as the years went by. Thanks for another great idea!

Okay, I don't have them in their seperate box and I don't have a spreadsheet but I do have pictures of all of them on the tree and the year and from whom they were received. I am planning on making a 7 by 5 scrapbook of them with various Christmas papers so she has a book to go with it.I probably should find the time to get it started since this last Christmas was her eighth!

Jill, when your kids grow up and have flown the nest, you should think about being a professional organizer! Your organizational skills is such an asset. How much memory does your computer have? My gosh, with all the organizational forms, charts, and list you have on it, plus your blogging, your digital scrapbooking..it's a wonder it has any room for more memory! I admire your talents; No, I envy you for them! LOL! You should put all your knowledge in a book and make some money. My hats off to you!

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